1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, a method for controlling an ink jet printer, and a computer program product for an ink jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet printers are well known. An ink jet printer receives print data files that are output from an external device such as personal computer, a digital camera, etc. The ink jet printer is provided with an ink jet head and a controller. The ink jet head executes a printing action whereby ink is discharged onto a print medium. The controller controls the ink jet head such that the content of the received print data will be printed.
In the case where a large amount of print data is contained in one print data file, it takes time for all of the print data to be received. As a result, printing takes a long time if the printing action is started when the ink jet printer has received all the print data included in the print data file. To solve this problem, the following ink jet printer has been developed. With this ink jet printer, each time the ink jet printer has finished receiving a predetermined amount of print data, this predetermined amount of print data is printed. For example, in the case where one print data file contains print data equivalent to fifty lines of a printing paper, ten lines of the print data is printed as soon as the ten lines of print data have been received. In this ink jet printer, when print data corresponding to the first ten lines has been received, the printing action of these ten lines begins. Further print data is received while this printing action is taking place. When print data corresponding to the lines 11 to 20 has been received, the printing action of these lines 11 to 20 begins. The remaining print data is printed in the same manner. In this type of ink jet printer, printing is begun before the entirety of the print data contained in the print data file has been received. Since printing is taking place at the same time as the print data is being received, the time required for printing can be reduced. This type of ink jet printer is taught in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 05-96826.